In the modern telecommunications environment, people have grown accustomed to sending and receiving a variety of messages including both voice and electronic mail messages. Often an individual would like to prepare a customized message that will be received by incoming telephone callers to alert the callers of some action or event. For example, a party may desire to provide driving directions to the party's home for an upcoming social event. It is undesirable to leave a general voicemail message on the party's local voicemail machine or on a network-based voicemail system that is received by all incoming callers. Also, even if such a method is used, the called party may answer some or all incoming calls only to have to convey the message to the incoming callers. If the called party ignores all incoming calls, the called party may miss important calls unrelated to the social event.
From the calling party's perspective, it is undesirable to receive a customized message if the message is not relevant to the calling party. If the calling party is interested in the subject matter of the customized message, often the calling party desires to save the message, but does not have access to a pen, paper, or other medium for saving information conveyed by the message.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.